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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © 2007 Gary Hardaway
690 words

THE ATHEISTS ARE GETTING RESTLESS -- AND MILITANT

By: Gary Hardaway

For the past three centuries or so, Western Civilization has spawned a small but steady stream of outspoken atheists, complaining about Christianity, railing against God, or, occasionally, marshaling whatever arguments they can muster in support of their godless view of the universe. Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erastus, comes to mind, as do the Huxleys: Thomas, Julian, and Aldous (who finally sought spiritual experience through mind-altering drugs.

Marx and his followers denounced religion (I.e. Christianity) as the “opiate of the people. Freud dismissed religious belief as an infantile neurosis. In 1925, the fiercely atheistic H.L Mencken gleefully excoriated William Jennings Bryan for defending biblical creation at the infamous Scopes trial in Tennessee. Conversely, he lauded his friend Clarence Darrow, the atheist lawyer who argued for blind evolution.

Column space prevents much of a survey of the likes of Ernest Hemingway (who rewrote the Lord’s Prayer to say “Our nothing who art in nothing, nothing be thy nothing;” Bertrand Russell, (“Why I Am Not a Christian“) or John Dewey, a founder of religious humanism, who spent over fifty years training thousands of public school teachers. And then there’s Madelyn Murray O’Hair, who led the campaigns to rid American schools of prayer and Michael Newdow, who seeks to expunge “under God” from the pledge of allegiance.

Lately, the atheists are getting more restless. One of them, philosopher Anthony Flew, has recently gone over to the other side. Perhaps more importantly in the big scheme of things, the anticipated decline and disappearance of Christianity, while proceeding in Europe, has miserably failed to materialize one the other continents. The Christian community in China has surpassed 100 million. Africa and Latin America are experiencing explosive church growth. I read somewhere recently that there are now an estimated 600 million charismatic Christians around the world. Whatever the number, it just increased while you were reading this.

In America the ascending influence of the “Intelligent Design” movement has spooked the scientific community, which feels its immense cultural authority threatened. Traditionally, that authority has condescendingly tolerated religion as a useful distraction for keeping the ignorant happy. That tolerance is diminishing.

Thus, Nobel physicist Steven Weinberg declares, “Anything we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done . . .” Richard Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion,” informs us that he is “utterly fed up with the respect that we . . . are brainwashed into bestowing on religion.” Not only is Dawkins “fed up,” but he intends to do something about it. He urges secular governments to treat religious indoctrination as a form of child abuse and take measures to prevent it. Philosophers Bruce Ackerman and Daniel Dennett have proposed similar policies. Sam Harris (The End of Faith) describes taking children to church as a “ludicrous obscenity.”

The atheists of yesteryear were pretty much content to fume and fuss about the surrounding Christian influence. In the 1960s the secularists sought -- and partially succeeded -- to rid public education of Judeo-Christian perspective. Today, a more militant army seeks to take over your kids and grandkids. It aims to rid society of parents, churches, and other institutions that transmit the Christian heritage to their children and community.

Thankfully, we’re still free to open our Bibles and see that it urges us to “bring them [our children] up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord.” It might be a good idea to memorize that good counsel, just in case our Bible are banned and burned. Atheist inquisitions have inflicted far more suffering and death on the world than those wrought by religious zealots.

No one should ignore this increasing force of the anti-god movement. No one should say, “It could never happen here.” Hundreds of millions of Germans, Russians, (and Jews around the world) have found out differently.

If you’re a believer, you already know how to pray -- even for your enemies. If you’re not sure there’s a god, pray anyway. It won’t do any harm. Be assured that militant atheism will harm absolutely everybody, including you, whether you believe in the Creator or not.

Gary Hardaway is executive director of Summit School of Ministry in Northwest Washington. He holds a Ph. D in foundations of education and is a member of the National Association of Scholars.  He has taught in universities in the USA, Lithuania and Canada. He holds a Ph. D. in foundations of education. "Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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